Snapshot stories and autoethnographic experience: An album of portrayal

Abstract

Like the professional photographer aiming to capture the best shot or series of photographs, choosing and using sound research methods to gather data is crucial to the credibility of qualitative research inquiry. My doctoral work was I framed as an autoethnographic personal narrative of lived experience with Māori culture, portrayed as a metaphoric photograph album, constructed around my work. A personal narrative because I told the story of my experience of the experience; an album because in my mind’s eye there were many ‘pictures’ of my work as a physical education teacher educator in Aotearoa-New Zealand. In this poster I illustrate how I positioned myself as researcher and used writing as a method of inquiry to write descriptive ‘snapshot stories’, derived from field experiences over 11 years of close and prolonged encounters with physical education teacher education (PETE) students in tertiary classrooms, and off-campus four to five day marae stays. My intent is to; provide background to my research process, identify the thrust and influence of relevant qualitative research literature, and narrative discourse; illustrate my practice of writing as a method of inquiry and the shape of selected stories; highlight how the stories provided significant data for self-reflexivity; and identify what it meant to be the storyteller of my role as a teacher educator.